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Van Gogh and Gauguin, or Who the Hell Cut that Ear?

Van Gogh. Self Portrait with Banded Ear

The sociologists consider Leonardo da Vinci, Vincent van Gogh and Pablo Picasso the world's most famous artists. Leonardo appears in the eyes of the public as a universal genius, Picasso is a stylish socialite, Van Gogh is a martyr and a crazy genius, who never thought about fame and money.

He took up painting being already a mature man, and just ten years later he turned into a master. The artist's biography wasn't full of adventures as the life of Paul Gauguin, who had worked as stockbroker and a sailor, and died of syphilis on the exotic Marquesas Islands, French Polynesia. Van Gogh was "a boring slogger" and his life was just ordinary, except for the suicide attempts and strange psychic attacks, appeared shortly before his death, and the myth about cutting off his own ear (actually, the lower part of his left ear lobe) which is quite doubtful.Medical assistance was rendered to him 10 hours after the incident, the report stated Van Gogh did it himself. Yet, there is a version that it happened during a fierce row with Gauguin. Versed in sailor brawls Gauguin sliced Van Gogh's ear with a razor, and the situation of "excessive tension" reached a crisis point and resulted in a psychic attack of the latter. Later, to justify his behavior, Gauguin made up a story that Van Gogh, in a fit of madness, chasing him with a razor in his hands, and then mutilated himself.Or, "...two German art historians, who have spent 10 years reviewing the police investigations, witness accounts and the artists' letters, argue that Gauguin, a fencing ace, most likely sliced off the ear with his sword during a fight, and the two artists agreed to hush up the truth." guardian.co.uk - Art historians claim Van Gogh's ear 'cut off by Gauguin'